


you’ve already won me over (in spite of me)

by Freezeurbrain



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Camping, F/F, Fluff, Friendship, Gay, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Implied pins and patches, M/M, Useless Lesbians, playride is a GOOD SHIP and it deserves more content, title is from alanis’s head over feet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:47:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23420443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Freezeurbrain/pseuds/Freezeurbrain
Summary: Brooke realizes she likes Christine as more than a friend
Relationships: Christine Canigula/Brooke Lohst, Rich Goranski/Jeremy Heere
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	you’ve already won me over (in spite of me)

When Jake had approached his friends last Monday and suggested they all go _camping_ over the upcoming long weekend, the reaction had been mixed, for lack of a better word. Some, like Rich and Christine, were on board right away. Others, like Chloe and Jeremy, had taken a little more convincing. 

“What if there’s, like, an axe murderer or something in the woods?” Jeremy had debated this question with Rich for a solid half hour the day camping was first brought up as an option, with Rich looking extremely exasperated with his boyfriend the entire time.

“Why is that always the default profession for a creep?” Michael had interjected into the conversation. “It’s always ‘axe murderer’. We don’t know the story of every random person jaunting around the woods.”

“And it’s not just creeps.” Jeremy had said. “We could run into, like, a bear or a coyote-“

“Are bears even in New Jersey?” Rich had asked.

Jeremy nodded. “They’re actually the largest land mammal in the state.”

Rich had finally managed to convince Jeremy to go by telling him that, on the off chance they did run into a bear, they could scare it away by simply yelling and making a lot of noise. While Jeremy seemed doubtful, it had apparently been enough for him to agree to the camping trip. Chloe, meanwhile, had to be talked into it by Christine, Brooke, and Jenna.

“No. No, I refuse to spend my long weekend going _camping_.” Chloe had been very adamant about her refusal. 

“Come on, Chlo.” Jenna had said. “It’ll be fun!”

“What are we going to do up there? Go fishing?” Chloe had asked.

“No.” Brooke had said. “None of us even own a fishing rod.” 

“Doesn’t matter. I’m not going.”

“Please?” Christine had batted her eyes like a toddler trying to talk her parents into buying her a new toy. 

“No.”

“Come on. It’ll be a great way for us all to spend time with each other!” Brooke had said.

“Doesn’t matter. I still don’t like camping.”

“Have you ever been camping?” Jenna had asked.

Chloe had shaken her head. “No, but I don’t feel like getting attacked by mosquitos and sleeping on the ground for two nights.” 

“If you’ve never been, how do you know you won’t like it?” Jenna had smiled smugly.

It had taken a lot of convincing, but in the end, the girls had gotten Chloe to agree to spend the long weekend camping. Brooke felt like she deserved an A in her debate class for managing that feat. 

And so, with a somewhat reluctant Jeremy and a very reluctant Chloe in tow, the eight of them had made their way to a nearby campsite that Friday afternoon. It was somewhat foggy, but no one was complaining about the cooler air. The only person who truly seemed bothered by the atmosphere was Jeremy.

“This screams ‘horror movie’. We can all agree this absolutely screams ‘horror movie’, right?” Jeremy looked around nervously as the group hiked along a dirt trail to get to their campsite. Even Brooke couldn’t stop the groan that escaped her mouth. 

“Dude, I think you just watch too many movies.” Michael said.

“We’ve all seen _Blair Witch_.” Jeremy nearly stumbled over a tree root as he walked. “We know what happens to idiot kids who go traipsing around in the woods.”

“Oh, I love Blair Witch.” Christine said, smiling.

“Really?” Brooke asked, surprised. She hadn’t pegged Christine as the horror movie type. Romantic comedy? Yep. Horror movie? It was hard to imagine Christine Canigula sitting down, of her own accord, to watch a horror movie. Let alone actually _enjoy_ said horror movie.

“Yeah.” Christine nodded. “No one really expects it from me. I mean, I can’t imagine why.” 

Brooke laughed. “No clue.”

“I just... it’s something about the artistry that I like. Like, have any of you seen _Suspiria_?” 

There was a collection of “Nope”’s and head shakes that went up from the group.

“You’ve got to.” Christine said. “It’s this old Italian film by Dario Argento, and it’s about this American ballet dancer who goes to study at this super-prestigious dance academy in Germany, but then all these crazy things start happening. Like, at one point, maggots fall from the ceiling.”

“ _Maggots?_ ” Chloe looked like she was trying not to gag. “Gross.”

“I know.” Christine said. “And it’s so trippy, but it’s so good.”

“Can we stop discussing horror movies now?” Jeremy said.

“You’re freaking my boyfriend out, Canigula.” Rich put an arm around Jeremy, almost protectively.

“Sorry.” Christine said, but a small, mischievous smile remained on her face. Brooke realized that Christine had dimples when she smiled- a weird thing to notice in the moment, but that was what Brooke saw. Then she wondered why she’d bothered to notice such a small detail.

She didn’t have any more time to ponder the question, as right then, the group came to a small balcony overlooking the lake. 

“Wow.” Jenna held up her phone to take a picture of the lakeside, covered in pine trees that were visible even through the thinning fog. “That is beautiful.”

“It _is_ beautiful.” Christine grinned, practically running up to the wooden railing at the edge of the balcony. She leaned up against it, staring out at the water with a wondrous look that was... cute. 

Brooke’s own realization surprised her. Yeah, Christine was cute. How had she just noticed this? It seemed like it had been so obvious now that Brooke realized it.

 _Oh, fuck._

That was when it finally hit Brooke. She liked Christine. _Like_ -liked Christine. Liked her in the lesbian way, not the friend way. In the _watching you smile makes my stomach flip, you’re actually the cutest person on the planet_ kind of way.

 _Well, shit._

This camping trip had just gotten a lot more awkward.

*** 

When they actually got to their campsite, they ran into a minor issue. 

None of them knew how to pitch a tent.

“Really?” Michael asked Jake. “You took us on a camping trip when you didn’t even know how to pitch a tent?”

“We had eight people coming!” Jake said defensively. “I figured at least one of us would know.” 

“That’s pretty shoddy logic there, Jakey D.” Rich said.

“Well, now I’m seeing the flaws in it, but you know, hindsight is 20/20 and all that.”

“Did the tents come with instruction manuals?” Christine asked. 

“They did not.” Jake shook his head. “Maybe I should have checked that before we left.”

“Well.” Chloe muttered, “I say we forget about tents and just sleep in Brooke’s mom’s van for the next two nights.”

“We can’t do that.” Brooke said. “There’s barely enough room in the van for all of us to sit, let alone sleep. We would probably have to stick someone on the roof.” 

“Well, we can play Rock Paper Scissors for that.” Jeremy suggested. “Loser sleeps on the roof?”

Jenna shook her head. “No one has to sleep outside. I’ll just look it up on WikiHow.” 

“WikiHow saves our lives once again.” Michael said.

Luckily for them, there was cell signal at the campsite. With Jenna reading the WikiHow page out loud, the remaining seven of them managed to pitch four tents without anyone getting seriously hurt. The only injury that occurred was Rich accidentally hammering his hand while he was securing the tent pegs, and the only consequences that resulted from that was the steady stream of curses Rich yelled out for the next minute and a half. Jeremy had even remarked that they didn’t have to worry about bears anymore after the scene Rich had just caused. 

“Shut up.” Rich shoved Jeremy with mock anger, but a smile crept up at the corners of his mouth.

The tents had gone up all well and good, besides that hiccup, but by the time they were done, the sun had almost set. It was Jake’s idea to make a fire. Which, ironically, took less time and resulted in less injury than pitching tents. Within fifteen minutes, they had a fire going and were roasting hot dogs over the flames. 

“Jeremy, dude, if you keep pulling the hot dog out it’s never gonna be done.” Michael said. 

“I don’t want it to burn!” Jeremy protested. 

“But the burnt stuff is, like, the best part.” Jenna took a bite of her hot dog. 

“I don’t like it burnt.” Jeremy said.

“Yeah, well, I don’t think you’d like it raw, either.” Michael said. 

“It’s not raw.” Jeremy fumbled with his stick, nearly dropping the hot dog into the fire. Fortunately for him, Rich reached out and caught it before it fell. 

“Hey, have we worked out who’s sleeping in which tent?” Christine spoke up. 

“I mean, there’s four tents and eight of us.” Jake said. “I figured we’d just double up.”

“I know who I’m with.” Rich grinned and threw an arm around Jeremy, whose fair skin turned a potent shade of crimson.

“You two better not make out all night and keep me awake.” Chloe said. 

“Michael and I can be roommates.” Jake said. 

“Oh my God, they were roommates.” Jenna whispered, which caused Jake to give her a dirty look. Out of the corner of her eye, Brooke thought she saw Michael blush.

“Can you even call this roommates?” Brooke asked.

Jake shrugged. “Tent-mates. It doesn’t matter.”

“I’ll bunk with Jenna.” Chloe and Jenna high-fived each other, smirking.

“I guess that leaves me and Brooke.” Christine grinned, squeezing Brooke’s shoulder.

“Let’s go.” Brooke smiled, trying to ignore the fact that she would be sharing a tent with her crush. What was the worst thing that could happen? 

Brooke instantly wished she hadn’t thought that. _Famous last words_.

The group spent the next hour or so sitting around the fire, telling scary stories and playing an on-again, off-again game of Would You Rather. 

“... and then she saw a bloody hook hanging from the passenger side door.” Chloe finished her story, one about an escaped madman with a hook for a hand stalking a couple on a lover’s lane.

“Ugh.” Jeremy shuddered. “I hate that. I hate that so much.”

“The story or the concept?” Chloe asked.

“The concept.” Jeremy shuddered again. 

“All right, Christine, it’s your turn.” Jake said. “Would you rather be trapped in a room with ten thousand tarantulas for ten minutes or eat ten tarantulas in ten minutes?”

“Hmm.” Christine hugged her knees to her chest. “Are the tarantulas I’m eating dead?” 

“Nope.” Jake shook his head. “They’re alive.”

“Well, then I’m going stuck in a room with them.” Christine said.

“Really?” Jake raised an eyebrow. “You’d choose to be stuck with ten _thousand_ tarantulas for ten whole minutes?”

“I mean, as long as I don’t make them mad, they won’t bite me, right?” Christine said.

“But, like, imagine them crawling on you.” Jake said. “That’d just be freaky.”

“Yeah, but it’s just ten minutes.” Christine said.

“You’re a madwoman.” Jake shook his head. 

“I can’t eat live tarantulas!” Christine said defensively. “Like, what if they crawled down my throat or something and they choked me?”

“Can we not discuss this after we’ve just ate?” Jenna asked. “You’re gonna make me sick.”

“People eat bugs all the time.” Michael pointed out. 

“Ugh.” Jenna wrinkled her nose. “I wouldn’t.”

“I ate a cricket once.” Christine said. 

“Really?” Jeremy looked over at Christine.

Christine nodded. “It was for Girl Scouts. Our scout leader brought in all these bugs that we could try, and I chose the crickets.”

“How’d it taste?” Brooke asked.

“Not bad.” Christine shrugged. “Kind of like a potato chip.”

“I hate to interrupt this lovely conversation, but we’re kind of running out of firewood.” Jake piped up. “Anyone want to go get some?”

“Oh, I can.” Christine stood up, brushing some dirt off her jeans. 

“I’ll come with you.” The words were out of Brooke’s mouth before she even knew she was speaking.

“Thanks.” Christine smiled.

“Take a flashlight.” Jenna dug around in her bag and produced a small aluminum flashlight. “It’s dark out there.”

“Thanks.” Christine took the flashlight from Jenna with a smile. 

“If you’re not back in half an hour, we’ll assume you’ve been murdered and we will react accordingly.” Rich smirked.

“Ha-ha.” Brooke rolled her eyes. “You’re hilarious.”

“I know.” Rich said. “It’s a gift.”

“Come on.” Christine tapped Brooke on the shoulder, and the two of them walked into the forest together. In no time at all, the sounds and light of the campsite behind them faded away. The only illumination they had to go by was the beam from the flashlight. The air was filled with the sounds of crickets chirping, which was admittedly a very calming sound. 

“How much firewood do you think we need?” Brooke asked. 

“I’m not sure.” Christine stepped over a tree root. “Let’s just grab as much as we can. Not like we can have too much.”

Brooke couldn’t argue with that logic. “Sounds good to me.”

The two of them spent the next few minutes picking up sticks and small branches. Finally, Christine picked up a stick that had a fork in it and held it up.

“Hey, look.” She waved the stick around with her free hand, smiling. “It’s a dowsing rod.”

“A dowsing rod?” Brooke asked.

“Like the one Coraline uses.” 

“Oh, Coraline.” Brooke nodded. “Man, that should not have been considered a kid’s movie.”

“I know, right?” Christine said. “I _like_ horror, and even I thought it was nightmare fuel.”

“It still _is_ nightmare fuel.” Brooke said. “I remember I watched it as a kid and became terrified about an evil version of _my_ mom trying to sew buttons over my eyes.”

“The book is even scarier.” Christine said. “Apparently, the writer of the original Coraline book told his publisher to take it home and read it to her kid, because the publisher thought it was too scary for kids. He said that if her daughter didn’t think it was too scary, it could be published. The daughter obviously said it wasn’t scary. And then, like, years later, she ran into the author and she confessed that she’d lied as a kid when she said it wasn’t scary.”

“So basically, the book exists because a kid lied to her mom?” 

“Basically, yeah.” Christine nodded.

“That’s hilarious.” Brooke smiled.

“It is.” After a second, Christine spoke again. “You know, you’re really pretty when you smile.”

“Really?” Brooke’s heart skipped a beat. 

“Yeah.” Christine nodded. Her eyes suddenly widened. “I don’t mean that in the creepy way. Like, not in that way that men on the street mean when they catcall you. Am I making sense?”

“No, no, I get it.” Brooke smiled. “Thank you.” There was a moment of silence before Brooke spoke. “You know, you’re really pretty too.”

A small smile spread across Christine’s face. “You mean that?”

“Yeah.” Brooke nodded. “I do.”

“Thanks.” 

“You know...” Christine bit her lip, and she looked down at her feet. “I’ve been thinking, Brooke, and I actually...” She sighed, then spoke her next words hurriedly. “I have a crush on you.”

Brooke blinked. She blinked again. “Really?”

Christine nodded. “I understand if you don’t feel the same, but I really wanted to tell you-“

“Christine.” Brooke cut Christine off, surprised she could even talk with how much her heart was pounding in her chest. “I have a crush on you, too.”

“You do?” Christine looked up at Brooke, eyes wide.

“Yeah.” Brooke nodded, smiling. “Yeah, I do.”

There was another moment of silence before Christine spoke again. “Hey, Brooke?”

“Hmm?”

“Can I kiss you?”

Brooke’s heart was beating so loudly, she thought Christine could hear it through her skin as she responded, “Yes.”

The height difference between them was so big, Christine had to stand on her tiptoes. Their noses bumped together awkwardly, but it was probably the best kiss Brooke had ever had. 

Unfortunately, it was interrupted by Rich and Jeremy running onto the scene. 

“Brooke! Christine!” Rich yelled. “Where are you guys?”

“Please don’t be _Blair Witch_ -ed to death!” Jeremy called.

When Rich and Jeremy saw Brooke and Christine, everything went silent. For a few seconds, everyone stood around awkwardly, as if no one really knew quite what to say. Finally, Rich turned to face Jeremy with a smug grin. “I _told_ you!”

“Wait, what?” Brooke blinked. This was not the response she’d been expecting.

“I knew it!” Rich pumped his fist in the air.

“Did you make a bet on this?” Christine asked.

“No!” Jeremy shook his head rapidly. “No, we didn’t.”

“We totally did.” Rich said, before turning back to Jeremy. “Pay up, sucker.”

“This is biphobic.” Jeremy muttered as he fished a ten dollar bill out of his pocket and handed it to Rich.

“Wait, back up.” Brooke interjected. “You knew we liked each other?”

“It’s the gaydar.” Rich said as he put the ten dollars into his pocket. “Or as I like to call it, bi-fi. Like WiFi, but bi.” 

“And your response was to make a bet on our love life?” Brooke asked.

“Yep.” Rich nodded. 

“We didn’t make bets on when you and Jeremy would get together!” Christine said.

“Actually, me and Chloe did.” Brooke said sheepishly.

“Doesn’t matter.” Rich shook his head. “I still won.” 

“You’re impossible.” Jeremy rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, I know.” Rich turned back to Brooke and Christine. “Hey, if you’re done, we should probably get back to the campsite before the others send out a search party for us, too.”

“Yeah.” Christine nodded, reaching out and interlacing Brooke’s fingers with her own. “We probably should.”

And so, the four of them walked back to the campsite, with Christine holding Brooke’s hand the entire time.


End file.
